Read Online The Red Witch (Amber Lee Mysteries Book 6) by Katerina Martinez - Free Book Online Page B

customs and passport control, and hurried right into the baggage reclaim feeling about as anxious as… well, a girl who was worried her luggage would wind up in another country. I had decided to go easy on the magick use until we had actually gotten to Berlin because I didn’t want to risk being detected prematurely and intercepted mid-air by anyone looking out for us. I didn’t know just how much intercepting Linezka and her minions were capable of, but a minor manipulation of Fate to ensure our bags arrived in Germany in a timely manner didn’t seem worth a potential mid-flight disaster.
    Collette stretched out, yawned, and her back clicked in several places.
    “Are you okay?” I asked.
    “Yes,” she said when she recovered. “I am fine. I am just not used to long flights.”
    “Yeah, I’m a little stiff too. Nothing a good drink won’t fix, though.”
    “A drink? Now?”
    “What?” I asked, shrugging.
    “It’s… five in ze afternoon. Wouldn’t you prefer a nap?”
    “Not really. It feels like we’ve been sitting down for years, I’m too excited to sleep, and I want to unwind a little before we get into the serious stuff, don’t you?”
    “And your situation with Aaron has nothing to do with zis need for a drink?”
    Suddenly I couldn’t keep eye contact with her.
    “Things with Aaron will get better,” she said, “Ze time apart will do you both good. Distance makes ze heart grow fonder.”
    This she had said before. We had spoken about Aaron at length while we waited for our first flight. Then again he came up on the flight to London. One more time he came up while we waited for our next flight at Heathrow airport. Of course, we spoke about him on the flight to Berlin, too. Aaron hadn’t been all we had talked about, sure, but he had come up once or twice.
    Or fourteen times.
    “It’s okay,” I said, “We don’t have to go into it again. He drove us to the airport, so he can’t be that pissed at me. I think he’s more annoyed about my leaving him behind. This is the second time I’ve kept him on the sidelines.”
    “And, in my opinion, rightly so. A man of Aaron’s… kind… would not serve us well on zis mission.”
    “Try telling that to my big, macho, alpha dog of a boyf—holy shit, that’s my bag!”
    I squealed, dashed for it, and pulled it off the carousel while only barely avoiding a collision with the cutest looking little blond boy on the planet. After making many awkward apologies to the parents, who I was sure were Dutch, or Swiss, or Swedish—had I really become that rusty at picking up nationalities?—I made my way back to Collette with my big red suitcase in tow and a triumphant smile on my face.
    “I’ve never been so happy to see a bag before,” I said, sighing with relief.
    “But you have been to Europe before, non?” Collette asked. If she was worried for her bag it didn’t show on her face.
    “Yeah I have, but last time I didn’t bring a suitcase with me – only a big backpack with as many spare clothes as I could cram into it. I sweet-talked my way into having them let me carry it on as hand-luggage so I didn’t have to wait for it in baggage reclaim.”
    “It must have been exciting to go on an adventure like zat on your own.”
    “Just like when you came to see me, right? You were on your own when I met you.”
    “Yes, but zere was nothing exciting about zat journey.”
    “I guess not…” I said, trailing off.
    We stood in silence for a while until Collette’s bag came rolling along the carousel. During that time I fished my phone out of my pocket, registered it to a local network, and hunted around for a decent Wi-Fi. The airport gave me 30 minutes of free time before they started asking me for money, so I capitalized on it and checked my emails and messages. As soon as internet connectivity returned to my phone the screen flooded with messages from Frank.
     
    Frank: I don’t miss you.
    Frank: Really, I don’t.
    Frank : Your boyfriend is